The marlin had come to 300 yards when he walked again. This time the boat was in a trough and the Emperor burst the surface pointing straight towards them. He came in a climbing leap, shaking spray from his back. The arc of his leap was down the wake...
'Maybe we could have it for dinner,' said Higgins. Kilian shook his head regretfully. 'Bonito are for bait fish,' he said. 'The locals eat them in soups, but they don't taste much good.' They made a second run through the shoal and there was a second...
It was on the Friday evening that Higgins sidled up to him in the main hall as he waited for his wife to come out of the ladies. 'I've got to talk to you ... alone,' Higgins hissed from the corner of his mouth with enough secrecy to attract attention...
The Emperor 'And there's another thing,' said Mrs Murgatroyd. Beside her in the taxi her husband concealed a small sigh. With Mrs Murgatroyd there was always another thing. No matter how well things were going, Edna Murgatroyd went through life to th...
Carmody stared at the sidewalk, at Seanies scuffed black shoes, and heard her voice: When Buddy comes back. Saw the fine hair at the top of her neck. Thinking: Here I am, Im back. So she waited for you, Buddy. Year after year in that dark goddamned f...
[ADVISORY : Story contains adult language] Carmody came up from the subway before dusk, and his eyeglasses fogged in the sudden cold. He lifted them off his nose, holding them while they cooled, and saw his own face smiling from a pale green leaflet...
When the sun was up, I entered the cave. It was damp in there. I could hear water running down one wall, and I felt a wind on my face, which was strange, because there was no wind inside the mountain. In my mind, the cave would be filled with gold. B...
The rope held, and the rock beside me held. Calum MacInnes dangled from the end of the rope. He looked up at me, and I sighed, anchored myself by a slab of crag, and I wound and pulled him up and up. I hauled him back onto the path, dripping and curs...
In the high lands, people spend words as if they were golden coins. But the custom is strong there: strangers who ask for hospitality must be granted it, though you have a blood feud against them and their clan or kind. The womanlittle more than a gi...
You ask me if I can forgive myself? I can forgive myself for many things. For where I left him. For what I did. But I will not forgive myself for the year that I hated my daughter, when I believed her to have run away, perhaps to the city. During tha...
Well, thought Monsieur Rose, Ill get even with him tomorrow. Tomorrow where would he be tomorrow? He knew there was an airfield not far away, and an army camp a bit farther on. Even farther away there were railway lines, bridges, and large factories....
Monsieur Rose (Mr. Rose) HE WAS AS ALOOF AND SELF-CONTAINED AS A CAT. He had an easy life; he had never married; and he was rich. Ever since he had been a child his face had had a condescending, mocking expression that inspired respect. He seemed to...
No reference was made next day to what had passed. Mrs Sunbury was frigidly polite to Herbert and he was sullen and silent. After supper he went out. On Saturday he told his father and mother that he was engaged that afternoon and wouldnt be able to...
THE KITE I know this is an odd story. I dont understand it myself and if I set it down in black and white it is only with a faint hope that when I have written it I may get a clearer view of it, or rather with the hope that some reader, better acquai...
I had to wait a while to pull myself together, and then I knocked slowly three times. I heard Andre shuffling behind the door, then his hand fumbling with the lock, and the door opened. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw that he was standing behind t...
